This is the music-related blog for Jonathan (Scooter) Clark, also known in the electronica world as DJ Bolivia, a producer and DJ from Atlantic Canada. I listen to (and produce) a lot of folk, indie, rock, and hip hop music too!
I also run a company (Replant.ca Environmental) through which you can sponsor the planting of trees to build forest reserves and community forests, which are protected from commercial logging. Please visit: www.replant.ca/environmental
I'm posting this to share a track that I released a few weeks ago, called "Dark City" (techno):
You can listen to this on Soundcloud:
Or watch it on YouTube:
Note that while the music is mine, I used an AI generator to come up with the graphics for the YouTube video.
You may wonder about the inspiration for this track. Let me tell you a story ...
In the heart of a sprawling metropolis, where the night never sleeps and the neon lights paint the streets in a kaleidoscope of colors, "Dark City" comes to life. Imagine a dimly lit studio, cramped between two age-old skyscrapers, where a young producer named becomes the unwitting architect of this new anthem. Let's pretend that his name is Jonathan. And let's humour him when he mistakenly describes himself as young.
In this studio, the air is thick with creativity. Or maybe it's radon gas at 212 Bq/m3, due to questionable ventilation. Either way, Alex is too engrossed in his craft to care. Surrounded by vintage synthesizers and a laptop that's seen better days, he channels the pulse of the city (a small town, really) and translates it into sound.
The track starts with a sultry beat, like the heartbeat of the city itself, slow and steady at first, then growing more insistent. It's the kind of rhythm that makes you want to move without quite knowing why. Into this, Jonathan weaves horn samples, not the polished kind you'd hear in a jazz club, but raw and edgy, stolen from the city's cacophony. These horns speak of midnight rendezvous and whispered secrets, of secret card games and cheap whiskey, of the kind of stories that only unfold under the cover of darkness. It's as if the city itself is whispering in your ear, telling you tales of the unseen and the unheard.
The track is a nod to the urban jungle outside, with a touch of humor that says, "Yeah, this is serious music, but let's not take ourselves too seriously." The track, "Dark City," becomes an underground cult classic, a tribute to the nocturnal world where the lines are blurred between the mundane and the magnanimous. It's a reminder that in the right hands, even the sounds of the city can become music, and every night holds the promise of a new story. Jonathan, with his unintentional anthem, carries on - oblivious to the chill of the night.
I have a new book online. This one is a photo journey through the Drake Passage and on to Antarctica.
Imagine a journey from South America's Cape Horn, through the Drake
Passage (also known as the Sea of Hoces), and on to rugged and majestic
Antarctica. You'll see stunning views - ice, snow, mountains, water,
seals, whales, and penguins (plus several dozen other types of birds and
animals). You might think that it is possible to get tired of those
views, but the author disagrees. This edition is a collection of
photographs taken during two weeks on a Russian icebreaker vessel,
including time spent camping on Antarctica itself, sleeping in the snow.
For the few that have experienced similar voyage, it's the adventure of
a lifetime. For those who dream of making this trip someday, these
photos will be a tantalizing hint of what is to come.
Here is a link to the print edition. This is Amazon's Canadian subsidiary, but you can just change the country code extension in the URL to find the book on your own version of Amazon:
(In Google Books, you may have to change the setting from "Flowing Text" to "Original Pages" on some devices in order for the content to display correctly)
Francis & I just finished up a new techno track recently, called Berlin. We're offering free downloads of the track, and also of the Ableton project files and a Stems pack.
First, here are two versions of the track. The structure of both is the same, although I prefer the instrumentation and mixing/mastering on the Self Isolation Remix:
Now if you're a producer/remixer and you're looking for access to the Ableton project or the Stems, we have them set up in Dropbox. Go to my public account at djbolivia.ca/dropbox and then look in the "Bolivia's Remix Projects" folder. There are four archives there for Berlin. The two Ableton archives have the same contents (despite different archive sizes), but we wanted to make them available as both RAR and ZIP archives, because some people prefer one type over the other. Same deal with the Stems, both archives have the same contents. There's also a rich text file that gives a bit of basic info about the source files, ie. things like key, tempo, external effects and processing, etc.
If you make a remix, feel free to share it online, but please use the following for a filename format: "Urban Francis & Bolivia - Berlin (Your Remix Name)"
A few weeks ago, I played a set at the Mount Funky Music Festival in Nova Scotia. This is the seventh year that the festival has been hosted, but the first time that I had been able to play or even attend.
It has been a while since I've accepted a request to play a set. I was hesitant to accept this gig too, especially since I only found out about it 72 hours before the show, and since I was in British Columbia at the time. For those of you who aren't familiar with Canadian geography, Nova Scotia and British Columbia are pretty far apart (about 5000 kilometers), as they're located on opposite coasts. However, I had a short three-day gap in my schedule, so I decided to put in an appearance. And I was really glad that I did!
Incidentally, the reason that I've been pretty low-key on the DJ scene and YouTube production scene for a few years is because I've gotten even more heavily involved in reforestation than I was even just a few years ago. For instance, last winter, I released three planting-related books on Amazon, which you can find if you want to visit my new author website:
Also, I've recently started another reforestation company, but instead of focusing on post-harvest industrial scale reforestation that is mandated by government policy, this one will rely on the generosity of global sponsors who donate money to have trees planted solely because it's good for our planet. Check out this website if you're interested:
Anyway, back to the music. Unfortunately, the stage wasn't recording all the DJ sets that night, and I forgot to bring a personal audio recorder. So I'm not able to share a recording of my set. However, for those of you who were interested, here's a set list:
01. Frank Kid - Happy Funker (Original Mix).
02. Enrico Sangiuliano - X Pollination (Original).
03. Adam Beyer & Mark Reeve - Nine Of You (Original).
04. Shake Inc. - Reaktor (Alex Senna).
05. Diego Lima - MadaFuckers (Original).
06. Phonista - Union Square (Original).
07. Christian Smith - Blast Off (Victor Ruiz).
08. Umek - Incinerator (Original).
09. Umek - Mechanical Blade (Original).
10. Hoxton Whores - Stand Myself (Kevin Andrews Remix).
11. Hoxton Whores - Welcome To The Whorehouse (Hoxton Whores Burlesque Club Mix).
12. Jay Lumen - Warehouse Trip (Original).
13. Jhony Rivers - Zerotonin (German Agger Remix).
14. Vic Ben - Return (Djahir Miranda Remix).
15. Alberto Ruiz - Room (Original).
16. Urban Francis & Bolivia - Hijack (Original).
17. DJ PP - Has To Be Done (Handzoff Remix).
18. Clark Fable - Midnight Marauder (Milo Zanneti Remix).
19. Olivier Giacomotto - Bipolar Star (Victor Ruiz Remix).
20. Rydel - Beat The Men (Original Mix).
Incidentally, here's a video for Hijack, a track that I did with Urban Francis, which I played in the middle of the set.
Anyway, the festival was a great time, and I was really glad to be back DJ'ing again.
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:
Although this blog is predominantly focused on my music
and DJ’ing career, I also want to share some information about my other
career: Canadian Reforestation.
The information in this post is part of a training series
from the Replant.ca website. More information
can be found at this link:
I’ll put the text and audio download link from this
training module below, but let’s start with the YouTube video for the module:
Section 16 - “Spacing, Density, and Excess”
In this section we'll talk about Spacing, Density, and Excess. We'll learn how these things are measured, and we'll understand why targets are set in silviculture prescriptions. We'll talk about compliance systems, and how, as a planter, you can leverage an understanding of these systems into increased productivity and higher earnings. If you have a proper understanding of what you can and can't get away with, with respect to spacing and density, your job will become a lot easier.
What's In A Plot?
When a forester takes a plot, he or she is not just checking the quality of the trees. There's a lot of additional information gathered. In rough terms, the information collected in each plot includes:
1. The number of trees planted in the plot.
2. The number of plantable spots.
3. The number of excess trees.
4. The number of satisfactorily planted trees.
5. The number of unsatisfactorily planted trees, and reasons why they were unsatisfactory (this is the quality assessment part of the plot).
6. Any other comments about the plot in general.
As you can see, most of these measurements are not even directly concerned with quality!
Plotted versus Planted Density
Density is a very important measurement that tells you the approximate number of trees per area on a block or a part of a block. Since we usually use the metric system, it's usually described as the number of seedlings, or “stems” per hectare. A hectare is 100m by 100m in size, or 10,000 square meters, and of course, it doesn't have to be a square. Earlier, I mentioned the fact that a plot within the 704 system is equal to 1/200th of a hectare. Because of this, if you know that you have a number of plots that average 8 trees each, and a plot is 1/200th of a hectare, then when you multiply the two numbers out, you'll realize that you have approximately 1600 trees per hectare. This density, which is determined by multiplying the average number of trees counted per plot by 200, is usually called the “plotted density.” Sometimes it's called the “plot density” or "sample density" or “statistical density” of the block.
There's another way to arrive at a slightly different density calculation: you can take the total number of trees that were actually planted on a block and divide it by the number of hectares. For instance, if you have a block on which you've planted 15,000 trees, and the size of the block is 10.0 hectares, then you have a density of 1500 trees per hectare. This density, calculated from the claimed planting totals, is usually called the “planted density.” It may also be referred to as the “claimed density” or “theoretical density.” Of course, if the planters made a mistake in their tallies, this number won't quite be correct.
It's important to understand right now that there's a significant distinction between the plotted density, which is a statistical measurement, and the planted density, which is the true density (if the planting totals are correct). Although each density is a measure of the number of trees per area of block, and although each may be accurate by itself, the two types of density measure slightly different items. It's possible for the plotted density be different than the planted density, and yet for each number to be “correct.” A correct plotted density merely refers to a plotted density that is calculated correctly. It doesn't mean that the plotted density accurately reflects the true planted density of seedlings on the block. If you truly understand the distinction between plotted and planted densities, that distinction will form the basis for starting to understand a lot of other nuances of most quality systems. Understanding this distinction also helps you start to learn some advanced density management issues, including issues as varied as manipulating the system to improve your quality results as a planter, and for management, investigating the likelihood that planters are stashing trees.
Some planters, especially beginning planters, will focus entirely on their planting quality, and pay very little attention to the planting densities that they achieve. This is possibly one of the biggest mistakes that a beginning planter can make. I simply can't over-emphasize the importance that density will play in your planting career. Look at it this way: making a quality mistake is not “irrevocable.” Planting a tree poorly, so it's considered a fault tree, will unquestionably reduce its chances for long-term survival. Even if it does survive, the tree may not achieve its maximum potential growth. However, a tree CAN recover from many types of quality faults. A quality fault simply means that the odds are stacked a bit higher against the tree. A tree in a dry area may not grow well until it gets heavy rains. A tree in a poor microsite may not grow as fast as one in a better microsite. A tree with non-vertical or “J” roots may not establish a strong root system as quickly as it could have. A leaning tree may take some time to straighten up. Despite all this, a tree can often recover from a quality fault.
With density problems, the story is different. Once a tree is planted in a particular microsite, it can never move. Quality faults, if they don't kill the tree, may only be temporary setbacks in the total life of the tree. But trees can't move by themselves, so density problems are permanent. The vast majority of foresters are very intelligent, and any forester with any common sense recognizes the importance of density, and will be far more tolerant of a few minor quality issues than they will be of density issues.
Another thing to consider is that most common quality systems are designed so that when a planter's density starts to get really out of line, it also starts to have a negative effect on your quality percentage. For instance, under the FS 704 system, planting low density will eventually result in missed spots, which is an automatic quality fault. Under the same system, planting high density will usually result in an excess fine, which again is not good.
Target Spacing & Minimum Spacing
Ok, now that you understand the basics of density, I'm going to explain two new issues: target spacing, and minimum spacing. Sometimes, target spacing is called the "contract" spacing. On any given contract, a forester will have come up with an assessment of how many trees they want planted in an area. If the area is rich and non-competitive and the trees are expected to do well, a “low” density of 1200 stems/Ha may be a good goal. In areas with poor soil, or high competition from existing vegetation, a higher density of 2400 stems/Ha may be a better goal. On some contracts, the density that the forester wants to see may not be a single number for the entire contract, but may vary from block to block, or may even vary from section to section within a block. No matter what the desired density is, it's very difficult for a forester to get good results by telling a planter to go out and, “plant about 2000 trees per hectare.” This instruction is too vague, unless you understand how to apply that number to the immediate area that you're currently planting in. Even after all the years that I've spent planting, I can't tell you exactly how big a hectare is at a glance, nor could I do a very good job of just guessing how far apart the individual trees need to be in order to fit exactly 2,000 trees into a hectare. I need a more tangible and achievable immediate measure to aim for.
Depending on the target density, it's fairly easy to use a chart to determine what the average inter-tree spacing needs to be to achieve the desired density. Once you have a tangible inter-tree distance to aim for, you have a realistic chance of meeting the forester's goals for density. For example, if every tree were 2.4 meters away from every other tree in a perfect grid, the resulting density would be 2000 stems/Ha. If every tree were 2.7 meters apart in a perfect grid, the resulting density would be 1600 stems/Ha. Your foreman can tell you the average spacing that will result in the target density that the forester is looking for. Foremen and supervisors have charts to help us know what our target spacing needs to be. Let me show you a couple of common numbers right now:
2000 stems/Ha = 10 trees per plot = 2.4m average between trees 1800 stems/Ha = 9 trees per plot = 2.5m average between trees 1600 stems/Ha = 8 trees per plot = 2.7m average between trees 1400 stems/Ha = 7 trees per plot = 2.9m average between trees 1200 stems/Ha = 6 trees per plot = 3.1m average between trees 1000 stems/Ha = 5 trees per plot = 3.4m average between trees 800 stems/Ha = 4 trees per plot = 3.8m average between trees
For a first year planter in the northern BC Interior, you're probably not going to see low density numbers very often. Those are typically target densities for coastal contracts. A planting density of 1200 stems/Ha or less is quite rare in the Interior. Trees are much less expensive to plant in the Interior than on the coast, so foresters there prefer to aim for higher densities, to maximize the chance of meeting Free Growing survey requirements. In the Interior, you're most likely to see target densities of 1400 stems/Ha and above, and sometimes as high as 2400 stems/Ha in pine plantations.
Of course, when you're planting a block, the trees are not going to end up in a perfect grid. Nor would you want to try to plant them in a perfect grid, because to get it exactly right would mean having a tape measure and measuring the distance between each tree. That would slow you down, and you'd plant less, which means that you'd make less money. The great thing is that your trees don't need to be exactly the same distance apart every time. If some are closer to each other, and some are further away from each other, you can still get the right overall density by making sure that ON AVERAGE, the trees are the proper target distance from each other. So to make your life easy, think of the “target spacing” as the optimum average distance between trees that is required for you to hit the correct overall density. You can plant some closer together, and some further apart, as long as the average is correct.
There are two benefits to being allowed to vary your distance between trees. The first is a benefit for the trees. Since you have a variance, you can select the best microsites for the trees. The forester wants you to put the trees in the best microsites, to maximize the long-term crop yield on the plantation, so it's in his or her best interests to allow you this variance in spacing. The second benefit is for the planter, and it's a very obvious one. If you're allowed some leeway in picking and choosing the spots to put your trees, you can select the easiest spots to plant each tree. You want to find the easy spots to plant in. As much as being successful at tree planting means a lot of hard work, you shouldn't be doing unnecessary work.
Of course, there are limits on how much variance you're allowed. That's where the minimum spacing comes into play. You won't be allowed to plant two trees closer together than the minimum spacing, or one of them will be faulted. So for instance, if you have a contract or block where the target spacing is 2.7 meters and the minimum is 2.1 meters, then you'll want to plant your trees about 2.7 meters apart on average, with no two trees ever being closer than 2.1 meters together.
Many planters at this point will ask an intelligent question: “If there's a minimum spacing, is there also a maximum spacing?” There isn't, at least, not exactly. Instead, there's a different measurement which effectively mimics the effect of having some sort of maximum spacing. It depends on the quality system you're working under, but it usually relates to having a “missed spot” rather than “wide spacing.” I'll explain that in more detail in a few minutes.
When it comes to density, you need to learn pretty quickly to get it right the first time. Density problems cannot be “fixed” by replanting, unless you pull every tree up from an area and start again, which is unthinkable. It only takes a minute or so for a planter to quickly throw a plot on himself or herself, and to count the number of trees in the plot. If you want to be a good planter, or if you already consider yourself to be a good planter, you're only fooling yourself if you think that you don't need to throw plots on yourself to check your density throughout the day. I personally recommend that all planters take at least four quick plots on themselves every day. I do it. In the long term, it's worth my while.
Excess
Many planters find the concept of density to be fairly easy to grasp, but they have much more difficulty with excess. Some planters mistakenly think that the two are the same thing, and that high density is the same as excess. However, this is another area where understanding the fine distinction between the two concepts will help a good planter become a great planter. High density and excess are somewhat similar. But high density happens when you have too many trees planted throughout the block consistently. Excess happens when you have too many trees through just some parts of the block, specifically where the plots land. For the mathematicians out there, let me give you a better definition: excess penalizes you if you have a high standard deviation.
The easiest way to explain the difference between excess and high density is probably with a very simple mathematical example. First, let me explain how excess is calculated. In most systems, each plot on a block is considered individually. If the plot that you're looking at has more planted trees than the target density, then each "extra” tree above the target density will be considered to be an “excess” tree. Once the forester knows how many excess trees there are in total in the series of plots, that number is divided by the total number of planted trees in the set of plots to come up with the excess percentage. Let's look at an example:
- First, assume that the target density is 2000 stems/Ha. This means that if you divide by 200, because a plot is 1/200th of a hectare, you should be hoping to get a total of exactly ten trees in each plot.
- Let's assume that we have two blocks. Each is two hectares, and to keep things simple, we'll say that each block needs two plots. Under the FS 704 system, a block that small actually needs a minimum of five plots, but we're going to ignore that rule for this example. Two plots per block.
- On block “A” we get 10 trees in the first plot and 10 trees in the second plot.
- On block “B” we get 8 trees in the first plot and 12 trees in the second plot.
- Let's assume that we've been told that 4000 trees were planted in block “A” and 4000 trees were also planted in block “B.”
- Although it isn't important to this example, I'm going to tell you that the trees in block A were planted with fairly even spacing, hence the reason that each of the two plots got 10 trees, while the spacing on block B was a lot more varied, with some sections having closer or “tighter” spacing than other parts of the block.
Block “A” Calculations:
- The total number of trees in the plots is 20. There are two plots. Therefore, there's an average of 10.0 trees per plot. Multiply this by 200 and you get a plotted density of 2000 stems/Ha.
- The total number of excess trees in the plots is 0. The first plot had 10 trees, and you don't get an excess tree until you go “one tree over” the target. Therefore, that plot did not have an excess tree. The second plot was exactly the same: no excess trees. Therefore, the total excess for the block is 0 trees out of 20 trees planted, or 0.0%.
Block “B” Calculations:
- The total number of trees in the plots is 20. There are two plots. Therefore, there's an average of 10.0 trees per plot. Again, multiply this by 200 and you get a plotted density of 2000 stems/Ha.
- The first plot had 8 trees, so there are no excess trees in that plot. However, the second plot had 12 trees, which is two trees higher than the target number of trees per plot, or two excess trees.
- With no excess in the first plot, and two excess trees in the second plot, the total excess for the block is 2 trees. You then divide that number by the total trees planted, which was twenty, and you get an excess percentage of 10.0%.
Hopefully this numerical example starts to illustrate the concept. The planted density on each of the two blocks is exactly the same, because each had 4000 trees planted over 2.0 hectares, or 2000 stems/Ha. The plotted density on each of the two blocks is exactly the same, because each block had 20 trees total between the two plots, or 10.0 trees per plot, which when multiplied by 200 gives you 2000 stems/Ha.
By the way, in this particular example, the planted density is exactly equal to the plotted density. Remember that it doesn't always turn out this way, depending on where the plots fall and how many trees are in each plot. In fact, it's most common for these two numbers to be different, although they are usually quite close to each other.
Even though the plotted density of both blocks is the same, and the planted density is also the same on each block, the excess on each block is NOT the same. The first block was planted with very consistent spacing, and did not end up having any excess trees. The second block had inconsistent spacing, and ended up getting a few excess trees in the plots, resulting in an excess percentage of 10.0%.
Under the FS 704 system, a company is not penalized for excess charges on a block if the overall excess percentage is less than 7%. In other words, you can have a small amount of excess and not get penalized for it. This is fair, because even the best planters will be forced to deal with a small amount of variety in their spacing. And to be honest, the foresters are ok with a bit of variance in your spacing too, because they want to see you looking for the best spots for the trees.
Missed Spot – A Quality Fault
Earlier we learned that wide spacing is not necessarily a quality fault. This is especially true if the spacing is consistently just a bit wider than the target spacing. Wide spacing only becomes a problem when it gets to be too extreme. There's a point when your spacing between two trees becomes so wide that you could have fit another tree in without it being too close to either of the other trees. At that point, it's considered to be a missed spot rather than just wide spacing. This is equivalent to a fault on the plot sheet. There's no specific code for this. You'll still get penalized though, because you don't have enough "satisfactorily planted trees" to match the number of "plantable spots." These are two terms that we'll look at later.
Basically, let's take a quick example where the target spacing is 2.7m and the minimum spacing is 2.0m. To keep things simple, let's work in just one dimension, ie. going in a straight line, although of course on the block you also have to think of trees beside you, not just the ones ahead and behind. Let's assume that as you're planting along in a line, you plant two trees that are 3.8m apart. This is wider than the target spacing of 2.7m. But wide spacing is not a fault.
Now let's try to figure out if we have a missed spot. Let's see if we can stick an extra tree between the two trees. We'll put it in the exact center of those two trees, so the new tree is as far as possible away from the original two trees. Since they were 3.8m apart, the tree in the exact middle will be 1.9m away from each of the other two. That's under the minimum spacing of 2.0m. In other words, it's not possible to legally put another tree between your first two trees without it being closer to an existing tree than permitted. If you can't legally add that tree, it's not a missed spot. The spacing is just wide spacing, no penalty.
Let's look at a second example, where you plant two trees that are 4.8m apart. That's really quite wide, if the target is only 2.7m. Once again, let's try to put a tree between the first two. If you put it exactly in the middle, then the new tree is 2.4m away from each of the other two. This is above the minimum. In fact, it's pretty close to the proper target spacing. Since another tree can legally be added in the middle without causing Minimum Spacing problems, you'll be considered to have a Missed Spot. There should have been a tree between the original two trees, so you're faulted.
Of course, in considering whether or not you have a missed spot, the forester also looks at other factors. Is the spot that was missed good enough to allow for a tree to be planted properly? If not, say for example there was a huge puddle right there, then the forester will not penalize you for missing the spot. The rationale in this example is that you skipped the spot because you had no choice, so you shouldn't be penalized.
Penalties
So overall, there are three different ways that you can be penalized for planting either too many trees or not enough trees in an area:
- Missed Spots
- Excess
- Low Density
Missed spots come into play when your spacing is wide and erratic, because you'll end up leaving gaps that should have had trees. For a planter, that's not good. If you walk over a spot where you should have planted a tree, you just missed out on an opportunity to make a bit of money. You don't get paid to walk around.
Excess comes into play when your spacing is erratic, and you put too many trees into a small area that a plot lands in. Now to be honest, it's usually good for planters to have slightly higher density than the target, and if a little bit of excess is the result, that's fine. As long as your crew's excess on the block is under 7%, your company isn't penalized.
Low density isn't something that I've mentioned yet. I did say that wide spacing wasn't a quality fault. But because foresters want to see a sufficient number of trees in their blocks, they often add a clause to the contract that gives a minimum acceptable density tied to payment. This is often a number like 200 stems/Ha under the target density, or alternatively, it could be a percentage amount such as ten percent under. So for example, a contract might say that the target density on a block is 1800 stems/Ha, but if the final density is under by more than 10%, or less than 1620 stems/Ha, there is no payment. If your crew does end up planting less than 1620 stems/Ha, there's a simple solution: you'll be sent back to add some more trees, until the density is brought up over the minimum.
If you have a smart foreman, he or she will probably do a quick calculation as soon as the block is done to see what the planted density is. If it's low, say around 1590 stems/Ha or slightly lower, that will indicate that the block is likely going to be a problem, because the plotted density will probably be very similar. In that case, it would be smart for the foreman to tell the crew to go back out and put in a few more trees as a precautionary measure. It's easier to add more trees to a block when you're already there, instead of coming back later. And if your planted density for the block is obviously low, it's smart to just fix the problem before the plots are even taken.
Is there a High Density penalty? Not really. Foresters get you on the excess charge, so they don't worry about it. Many foresters are Ok with you planting slightly higher density than the target, as long as it's consistent. They just don't like inconsistent high density, which is why the excess calculation meets their needs as a way of making sure you don't plant far more trees in an area than you're supposed to. And even density that is perfectly consistent can still give you an excess charge if the density starts to get too high.
I'm sure that at this point, many of you are sitting there with your eyes glazed over, completely lost. That's understandable. This is the sort of material that you should revisit a couple times per season for your first couple years, until you fully understand the math behind everything.
To be honest, what we've just covered here is barely scratching the surface of a proper understanding of spacing and density management considerations. For a first-year planter though, it's enough to get you started. The key take-away lesson here is that you need to get your density right, and in order to do that, you need to make sure your spacing between trees is accurate and consistent. Instead of using a measuring tape to measure between each tree, throwing a plot on yourself is a quick way of seeing if you're on the right track. Even if you don't check the quality of each tree in your plot thoroughly, a quick density plot can be thrown in less than a minute. If you have the right number of trees in your plot, you'll feel more confident in proceeding at full steam ahead.
Your instructor and your foreman will throw some plots with you, to make sure you completely understand how to take plots quickly and accurately. Taking a quick plot will ultimately save you time, rather than just costing you a minute or two, because it'll let you know if your density is on track.
-----
Here’s an Audio version of this material, in case you
want to listen while you’re driving, running, at work, or otherwise unable to
read or watch video:
Click on the down-arrow icon in the upper right corner of
the SoundCloud widget to download the mp3.
Once again, for further information about this series of
tree planter training information, visit:
Although this blog is predominantly focused on my music
and DJ’ing career, I also want to share some information about my other
career: Canadian Reforestation.
The information in this post is part of a training series
from the Replant.ca website. More information
can be found at this link:
I’ll put the text and audio download link from this
training module below, but let’s start with the YouTube video for the module:
Section 12 - “The Planting Prescription”
In this section, we're going to learn some information that you'll hear which relates to the Planting Prescription. You may never see a prescription on paper, but the forester will give you certain information, either directly or through your crew foreman, which guides your planting style by clarifying certain specifications. Most of this information will be given to you at a meeting that's called a pre-work conference, and then you'll get additional feedback on the blocks as various people are checking the quality of your planted trees.
The Pre-Work Conference
At the start of a contract, the planters need to be told exactly what requirements and preferences are in effect for the current contract. These requirements and preferences are usually referred to as the specs, which is short for specifications. The forester will often hold a pre-work conference with the crew to outline the specs. In some cases, the foresters prefer not to try to communicate this information with such a large group of people at one time, so instead they'll have a pre-contract meeting with the staff and management of the company, to go over the specs in detail with the camp supervisor, the foremen, and the quality checkers or tree runners. The staff are then expected to have a subsequent meeting with the planters to pass on this information, and to ensure compliance with the client's expectations. Part of your job as a planter is to pay attention to the planting requirements, and understand what is being asked of you.
The Silviculture Prescription & the Planting Prescription
The silviculture prescription and the planting prescription are not the same thing. They are two separate site-specific plans. The silviculture prescription is an overall document that describes the forest management objectives for an area. It also covers the methods for harvesting the existing stand. If you do a google search for "silviculture prescription guidebook bc" you'll find a detailed document produced by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, showing exactly what is included in a comprehensive Silviculture Prescription document.
The planting prescription is a specific part of the overall silviculture prescription plan that focuses on just the planting specs. Some of the specs in this plan will relate to things such as screefing, obstacle planting, specific microsite requirements, density specs, quality specs, fertilization, browse protection, and more. Let's look at these in more detail.
Screefing involves using your shovel or boot to remove unwanted surface material from the planting location. Your instructor and your foremen will both demonstrate different ways to do this, and will monitor your screefing techniques to make sure you can get the minimum amount of work done quickly and efficiently with minimum risk of long-term damage to your body. In general, boot screefing is faster and easier on your body. Shovel screefing is harder on the arms and shoulders, but does a better job. In tough grass mat, shovel screefing may be your only option. Screefing is not required on all contracts, and the size and depth of screefing requirements can also vary.
Obstacle Planting involves making use of stumps, slash, or other obstacles to protect seedlings from damage from things like cattle or snow.
Microsite Selection is important to maximize the potential growth of a seedling. You'll be expected to select microsites that minimize the impact of limiting factors and maximize seedling establishment and growth. For example, in some regions, you might be asked to plant trees in the bottom of trenches, in order to take advantage of moisture in drought-prone areas. In other regions, you might be asked to plant trees at the hinge or higher in trenches, to take advantage of higher temperatures.
Density Specifications vary from contract to contract, and sometimes from block to block. For example, a forester might say that the spruce trees in one area have exhibited slightly higher mortality than pine in the past couple of years, so you might be told to plant spruce sections at a density of 1800 stems/Ha and pine sections at a density of 1600 stems/Ha. We'll talk about Density in much more detail in another section.
Quality Specifications also vary significantly from contract to contract, although quality expectations are generally very consistent on all blocks within a single contract. There's a common quality assessment system called the FS 704 system, which is in common use throughout much of British Columbia. Within that system, there can be variations. For example, on one contract, a forester may say that he/she would prefer to see all trees slightly deep, with pine trees a maximum of two fingers of dirt above the plug, and spruce trees even deeper with a maximum of four fingers of dirt above the plug. We'll talk about Quality in much more detail in another section.
Potential Non-Planting Components
Some seedlings are fertilized at the time of planting by having a "tea bag" package full of fertilizer buried in the ground a few inches away from the seedling. This happens especially where soil nutrients are limiting, or in areas where the cost to establish a seedling is so high that every possible growth advantage is worth the expense involved in providing the advantage. Trees are not commonly fertilized in northern BC, but it happens more frequently in the southern Interior, and it's very common on the coast. The best place for a tea-bag is usually about three inches from the seedling, ie. on the other side of the shovel hole, and buried just barely below the surface. You cannot let the tea-bag drop down into the shovel hole. You get paid extra for having to fertilize each tree. First-year planters don't typically work on jobs where fertilizing is necessary. Tea-bags are often called ferts.
Browse Protection involves putting up structures or equipment to protect planted seedlings from being eaten by animals. Certain species, especially pine and cedar, are an appetizing snack for certain animals like deer and elk, and sometimes rabbits. Planters may be asked to put up three or four foot high "cones" over a freshly planted tree, which are then attached to a stake driven into the ground beside the tree to hold them in place. These cones are left in place for a few years until the tree has grown to the point where it's not very susceptible to damage anymore. Coning isn't a common activity for first-year planters to be involved in, since it's most commonly done on the coast, or on technically challenging ground in the Southern Interior. In those locations, the cost of planting a tree is so high that it's worthwhile to invest extra money in protecting the seedlings. In the northern Interior, it's easier just to plant a higher density of trees and assume that a few will get eaten.
Block Boundaries
For a first-year planter, knowing where the planting area ends and the forest begins is sometimes rather difficult. The exact boundaries can be pretty vague. There won't be a fence or markers to guide you. The boundary will almost never be a straight line. It'll curve in and out, and you may have to interpret vague clues to determine if you've reached the end of the block yet.
There are problems if you can't identify the block boundary properly. If you leave holes within a planting area, it increases the licensee's risk of non-compliance. If you plant outside of the unit boundaries, where there's no responsibility and perhaps no permission to plant, you'll waste energy and money. This is called a trespass. This may have a negative impact on your company's reputation, and can sometimes lead to a fine for your company.
Your foreman or the forester will try to show you where the boundaries are located. Pay close attention. Often, there may be some sporadic symbols or markings to help guide the planters, such as old ribbon, paint, or rigid aluminum tags. In some cases, the edges of the blocks are extremely clear and obvious, and planters don't need help trying to figure out where the block boundary is located. In other cases, a forester will take the time to hang flagging tape every twenty feet or so, to help guide the planters.
Block boundaries often follow natural features such as roads, timber edges, and creeks. Sometimes there's an adjacent piece that has also been cut but which is a different block, and it's very difficult to figure out the boundary. In those cases, it's expected that someone should put up a flag line of ribbon to help the planters stay inside the correct boundaries. Your foreman should have good map-reading skills, and will probably be using a GPS or a geo-referenced map on a mobile device, to help ensure that the crew understands the block boundaries.
Mixing Species
Species mixes are common as they provide diversity and some protection from environmental concerns including global warming. They also help to protect against many forest health concerns including root rots, mistletoes, rusts, and beetles. You'll need to bag up with the appropriate species mix and know the best microsites for each individual species. For example, in wetter sites, spruce is more suitable than Douglas fir.
Professional planters with many years of experience doing coastal planting are often faced with very complex and challenging species mixes on their pieces. Every planter's piece can also be slightly different on the coast. For example, one coastal piece might require something like this:
"40% western red cedar, 30% western hemlock, 25% Douglas fir, and 5% Sitka spruce. The cedar must be the only species present in salal patches. The hemlock can be planted in pure organics, and can be mixed with cedar in mineral/organic areas. The Douglas fir can only be planted in areas of pure mineral soil, and only on the upper two-third of the piece. The spruce should be spread evenly throughout the lowest 20 meters of the piece in a mix with the cedar."
When you're given specs like this, it can be pretty confusing. However, a first-year planter in the Interior won't be faced with any prescriptions that are even remotely as complex as the example that I just gave. You'll probably be planting monocultures more often than not. A mix of pine and spruce is also fairly common, but at least that's only two species. Planting three species simultaneously would be relatively rare in northern BC.
When you have to plant a mix of pine and spruce, there will be two approaches. One is a percentage mix, and the other is a targeted mix. Even with a targeted mix your final result will still probably need to consist of specific percentages, but the difference in general is that a percentage mix is mixed consistently overall, whereas a targeted mix varies depending on which part of your piece you're planting at the moment. Let's go into more detail, because this is confusing. In these examples, I'm going to use a prescription for the block of 75% pine and 25% spruce. Furthermore, I'm going to say that for some reason, your specific piece actually has to meet those same requirements exactly.
In the Percentage Mix, you will need to plant 75% pine and 25% spruce everywhere in your piece. Let's say that your target density is eight trees per plot. I'll explain this in more detail in the section about density. Since 75% of eight trees is six, and 25% of eight trees is two, all of your plots should have six pine trees and two spruce trees each. The forester expects to see both species in every part of your piece, consistently, no matter where he/she walks. If you have a plot with five spruce and three pine, the forester will frown, because your ratio is incorrect. You can't get away with broad mixes, which is what would happen if you planted three boxes of straight pine on one side of the piece then planted a box of straight spruce on the other side. It needs to be mixed up on a really micro level. This type of approach is very common on blocks where the ground is homogenous and consistent, no matter where you are on the block.
In the Targeted Mix, the expectation is that your piece will have different types of microsites, and the forester will want you to prioritize the correct species for each individual microsite. So for example, if you have several gullies or low draws or swampy areas in your piece, you'll be expected to put spruce trees into all those areas. The pine will go everywhere else. Quite often, you'll still have to try to respect the overall mix, because that's how many trees got ordered. If 10% of the piece is wet and should definitely take spruce, and 10% is dry and should definitely take pine, and the other 80% could take either species, you'll want to put straight spruce into the wet areas, straight pine in the dry areas, and the rest of your piece that can handle either species will get a mix containing the other 15% of the spruce and the other 65% of the pine.
On your first run, you might not know what you'll find, so you might take three quarters pine in your bags and one quarter spruce, and just pull out the proper trees as you go, depending on what you encounter. But you might discover on that first run that the entire right side of your piece is a swamp. So you might decide to take 100% spruce with you on your second and third runs, and get the swamp finished up first, so you're left with straight pine in drier ground for the rest of your bag-ups for the rest of the day. You might also decide to spread the pain out throughout the day, so you take mostly pine and a bit of spruce on each run, and just chip away at a bit of the swamp during each bag-up. Either approach is fine, as long as the end result is that you get the right trees in the right places.
Some foresters will tell you to use a combination of percentage mixing and targeted mixing. This is probably the best approach, and is fairly common. You, as a planter, get to do what makes the most sense to you. If you feel that the lowest quarter of your piece has the most moisture, you can plant all the spruce down there and tell the forester that's what you decided was best. If you think the moisture content is pretty consistent throughout your piece, then you can just do a random percentage mix throughout your piece. As long as you can justify the rationale that you used to make your decisions, the forester will be happy. In other words, you'd end up doing what you think is best for the trees, without so many strict guidelines.
If you're still uncertain about what the best decisions are for picking spots for various species in your piece, ask your foreman or trainer. He or she will be glad to help out.
-----
Here’s an Audio version of this material, in case you
want to listen while you’re driving, running, at work, or otherwise unable to
read or watch video:
Click on the down-arrow icon in the upper right corner of
the SoundCloud widget to download the mp3.
Once again, for further information about this series of
tree planter training information, visit:
Although this blog is predominantly focused on my music
and DJ’ing career, I also want to share some information about my other
career: Canadian Reforestation.
The information in this post is part of a training series
from the Replant.ca website. More information
can be found at this link:
I’ll put the text and audio download link from this
training module below, but let’s start with the YouTube video for the module:
Section 10 - “Stock Handling”
In this section, we'll look at Stock Handling. We'll talk about the preferred methods of handling boxes, the preferred on-site storage methods, and we'll demonstrate how to handle seedlings and bundles correctly.
Once the trees arrive on-site to your planting camp, in a large truck or reefer, tree planters are the primary link in handling the seedlings until they're finally planted in the spots where they'll spend the rest of their growing lives. This is the part of the seedlings' journey where stress can be most easily introduced, so it's important for us to treat the young trees with care.
How you handle seedlings will directly affect their survival. From the time a seedling leaves the nursery, it's at risk. There are obvious ways to mishandle trees, but you shouldn't underestimate the effect that a series of small stresses can have on seedlings. Each stress is cumulative. Once weakened, a seedling has less resistance to future stresses that it will encounter once planted.
On Site Seedling Storage
Once the trees are at the site, they'll need to be taken care of in a manner that maintains their optimum temperature and moisture.
Here are some basic rules for onsite seedling storage:
- Protect them from direct sunlight and temperature extremes.
- Thaw any frozen seedlings slowly and naturally, within closed boxes or under tarps. The roots and plugs of seedling bundles should never be exposed to direct sunlight and air flow.
- If the plugs of the seedlings aren't very moist, give them a bit of water occasionally. Don't soak them.
- Keep seedlings out of standing water or mud so their roots can breathe.
- Keep seedlings covered whenever possible, by natural shade, or by a reflective covering.
- Whenever possible, your main seedling cache should be a refrigerated trailer unit, referred to as a reefer. The temperature in the reefer should be maintained between one and four degrees Celsius. This is the optimum temperature to store the trees, until they're removed from this main cache and moved into trucks for their trip to the blocks.
Handling Seedling Boxes
Seedlings are sensitive to being crushed, and the trees undergo stress if the boxes are dropped. During transportation in trucks or on ATV's, rough access adds stress to the seedlings.
Here are some basic rules for handling seedling boxes:
- Handle boxes carefully, without dropping or throwing them. When unloading a reefer, slide them up the floor, and don't let the boxes crash out the end onto the ground.
- Keep the boxes upright, as seedlings can also be crushed when the boxes are crushed.
- If you need to stack boxes more than two boxes high, use a pattern of alternating orientation that strengthens the structural integrity of the pile.
- Keep the boxes closed when you're not bagging up.
- Don't sit on, stand on, or stack heavy objects on the boxes, if it causes the boxes to be crushed.
- Try not to ever let tree boxes get wet. The cardboard is treated with wax, but the boxes still degrade when wet, and they'll crush more easily. Storing trees in a reefer is always better than using a bush cache.
Correct Handling of Seedlings and Bundles
The highest risks to seedlings are when you handle them in bundles while bagging up, and as individual seedlings while you're planting them.
Your trainer or foreman will show you the proper way to load seedlings into your planting bags, also knowing as "bagging up." Depending where you're working, you may be asked to use reflective inserts known as "silvicools" in your planting bags, to keep seedlings cool. With the exception of your drawbag, which is the insert or inserts that you're actively drawing trees from, any other reserve inserts should be kept closed if it's a hot or sunny day. Don't come back to the cache to take a break while you still have trees in your bags. Make sure you bag out first, so seedlings aren't sitting in your bags for an unnecessary amount of time.
When you're planting, moving a seedling from your bags to the hole can damage it in numerous ways. The laterals, needles, or the top bud (known as the leader) can be damaged. The roots can be shaken or bent with rough handling. Be gentle with the seedling as you're moving the tree out of your bags. Don't unwrap too many at once, because on a hot day, the plugs will dry out faster. At the end of the day, if you're stuck with some trees remaining in your bags, rewrap any loose trees, close the drawstrings on the inserts, and store the bags in a cool, safe place. Your trainer or foreman will demonstrate the best way to handle the seedlings while you plant.
A bit of jostling around is inevitable for the seedlings. However, we want to avoid unnecessary violence. By treating them with some respect, you can have a significant effect on improving their survival rate. Just like people, young trees are more susceptible to being hurt than mature trees. Treat a box of trees just like it's a box of babies. You don't want to being throwing boxes of babies around.
-----
Here’s an Audio version of this material, in case you
want to listen while you’re driving, running, at work, or otherwise unable to
read or watch video:
Click on the down-arrow icon in the upper right corner of
the SoundCloud widget to download the mp3.
Once again, for further information about this series of
tree planter training information, visit:
Although this blog is predominantly focused on my music
and DJ’ing career, I also want to share some information about my other
career: Canadian Reforestation.
The information in this post is part of a training series
from the Replant.ca website. More
information can be found at this link:
I’ll put the text and audio download link from this
training module below, but let’s start with the YouTube video for the module:
Section 08 - “Nature & the
Environment”
One of the best parts of
tree planting is getting to spend time outdoors, enjoying the benefits of
health and of some amazing scenery.
You’ll become more aware of plants, flowers, animals, and birds. Of course, working outdoors is not always good. You’ll have to deal with weather and
temperature extremes, insects, and other challenges. In this section, we’ll take a very quick look
at some things you might see or experience on your blocks.
Weather
We’ve covered weather
already in the section about hazards and safety, so we won’t get into too much
detail here. However, weather and
temperature are definitely related to the environment. You’ve already heard the warnings about being
prepared for weather extremes, and how to minimize the chances of hypothermia
or heat stroke. We can’t reiterate this
enough: make sure you’re always
prepared. If you’re smart, you’ll always
have good rain gear and extra dry clothing packed in a waterproof bag, and
you’ll always have lots of water on hot days.
Also, it’s important to
recognize that inhospitable weather is part of the job. We work in rain. We sometimes work in light snow, if the
ground isn’t covered. We work in winds,
unless there’s a danger of trees toppling onto planters. Probably at least a quarter of your work days
will be spent in miserable weather. You
can’t afford to sit down and sulk, and wait it out. You need to realize that you can make money
in the rain, and you’re going to have to get used to working in it, even though
it’s harder on morale.
Rain unfortunately also
slows planting down for other reasons than just the fact that it can be
depressing. Access issues can be a
problem in heavy rains, as muddier roads become dangerous or impassible. Drivers need to slow down on wet roads. Trucks may get stuck if drivers try to push
too far into blocks without a solid road foundation. Sometimes, it’s better to park the truck
close to the block and walk the last few hundred meters. You don’t want to get the truck stuck in bad
puddles at the entrance to the block because you were too lazy to walk the last
few hundred meters, and then have some sort of emergency and not be able to
evacuate to medical aid.
Most planters don’t pay a
lot of attention to the weather, other than to try to guess if it’s going to
rain. But the weather is an amazingly
complex topic, far more complex than we’ll go into here. However, I’ll leave you with a few
interesting facts:
Low pressure systems
usually result when warm air rises, lowering the atmospheric pressure on the
rest of the air. Low pressure systems
usually feature precipitation, unlike high pressure systems which are usually
nice weather.
Wind always circles
counter-clockwise and inwards around a low pressure system in BC, when viewed
from above. Wind around a high pressure
system always blows clockwise and outward.
If you’re standing with a
steady wind at your back in BC, the low pressure system (and the area most
likely to have rain) is therefore always on your left side.
There are ten major
categories of clouds, and many variations on these ten basic groups, but only
three of the cloud groups commonly produce precipitation.
Thunderstorms commonly
occur because as the day progresses, the sun heats up the ground, causing air
to rise and causing a low pressure system to form. That’s why in some places, thunderstorms tend
to happen at roughly the same time every afternoon.
Helicopters can fly better
when the air pressure is more dense.
Therefore, helicopters fly better at lower altitudes. Helicopters have a harder time when the
temperature increases, because air rises and becomes less dense. And finally, air saturated with water is
surprisingly less dense than unsaturated air (this relates to molecular
weights), so it’s harder for a helicopter to create lift on a muggy day than on
a dry day. In other words, four things
that are challenges for helicopters all start with H: heavy loads, high altitudes, hot
temperatures, and humid air.
Between the start of your
spring season and June 21st, sunrise happens about ten minutes
earlier each week, and sunset happens about ten minutes later per week. So in the six weeks leading up to June 21st,
the days grow two hours longer - an extra hour of daylight in the morning, and
an extra hour in the evening. After June
21st, the days start growing shorter and the opposite is true.
Determining Direction
from the Sun
If you don't have a map or
compass or GPS to help you, and it's a reasonably sunny day, and you know the
approximate time of day, you can quickly point out approximately where north,
south, east, and west are. This may seem
like magic, but it's not!
We all know that the sun
always rises in the east. If you're in
the northern hemisphere, which includes all of British Columbia, then the sun
is always approximately due south at noon.
There will be a slight error, especially closest to June 21st,
which is related to seasonal precession and the tilting of the Earth’s
axis. However, your estimate will be
quite close, within about twenty degrees at worst. So let's assume that you're on a block, and
you can see where the sun is. If you
know that it's approximately noon, then you can point at the sun and say that
that direction is due south. Knowing
that, you can figure out north (behind you), east (to your left), and west (to
your right).
Let's say that it's not
noon. Let's assume that it's
mid-morning. In the northern hemisphere,
the sun always moves from left to right throughout the day. So if it's not noon yet, you can look a bit
to the right of where the sun is right now to make a guess of where it'll be at
noon. You can call that direction south.
If it's after lunch, then
the sun will have already passed the mid-point of the sky. Look to the left of the sun, and make an
estimate of where it was a few hours ago, at noon. You'll be able to point that direction out as
due south.
Figuring out approximate
directions is pretty easy if you can see the sun and if you know approximately
what time of day it is, and you'll usually be within ten or twenty degrees of
being correct once you practice a bit.
Plants
You’ll quickly learn that
there are hundreds of types of grass, brush, and other vegetation that you’ll
encounter. Most vegetation is fairly
benign, and you won’t need to be able to identify very many types of plants,
but a few are good to know. After a few
years of experience, you’ll come to understand the seasonal progression, from
relatively brown and barren blocks in early May, to thick green blocks covered
in grass and other vegetation in July.
Grasses are usually
annoying to planters. Grass roots are
fairly strong, so if you’re planting in areas with thick grass, the sod is
going to be a problem if you need to screef down through the root mat. If this is the case, consider using your
shovel to screef, instead of your boot.
If you turn the shovel sideways as you’re screefing, you might be able
to slice up the sod and remove it with less effort.
Devil’s Club is a thorny
plant that you won’t want to run into.
This plant is found more commonly near the end of the season, and it
usually grows in moist, shaded areas on blocks, where it can root in black
organics. The stalks are very easy to
identify from a distance, as they’re one to two centimeters thick, and can
occasionally grow to be as tall as a planter.
When they’re still alive, they’ll have huge broad green leaves, but even
after the plant dies, the dry stalk retains its thorns for a while. You’ll mostly run into devil’s club in
gullies and along block edges. Luckily,
it’s so visible that it’s usually fairly easy to avoid.
Stingy Nettles are a lot
worse than Devil’s Club. The thorns on
stingy nettles are very small and soft, almost like hair. However, they release a chemical when you
brush up against them, and this chemical causes a really intense itch in most
people, which can last for a day or two.
You might not even notice immediately when you brush up against nettles,
but within a few minutes, you’ll start getting itchy wherever your bare skin
came into contact with the plant. As
hard as it is, try not to scratch or rub the itch, because that drives the
chemicals deeper into your skin and makes the reaction worse. Not everyone is affected by stingy nettles,
but most people are, and being wet or sweaty often seems to make the reaction
worse. If you take anti-histamines, that
might help reduce your urge to scratch.
There’s no real antidote or cure, except to wait a few hours or days for
the itching to go away. Unfortunately,
stingy nettles are very hard to see.
They’re usually less than waist height, and look like very thin bare
stalks, and several other types of vegetation look very similar. You won’t run into them frequently in the
spring, but they start to become more common in July in some areas. Stingy nettles usually grow on black organics
or soft, rich mineral soil.
You’ll see a lot of types
of moss, especially any time that the ground becomes more moist or shaded. If you ignore taxonomic classification and go
with slang terms, there are two broad groups of moss in BC: feather moss, and sphagnum. Feather mosses are types of boreal forest
moss that usually have features that look like small tree branches or
feathers. Sphagnum mosses are types of
peat mosses, and often have star-like patterns.
The difference is that feather moss can survive in fairly dry
conditions, whereas sphagnum needs constant moisture to survive. Foresters will often allow you to plant trees
in sphagnum moss, knowing that the ground will retain moisture even in dry
months. You’ll usually be allowed to
plant the plug right into the moss rather than having to screef it away. Feather moss, however, usually isn’t an
acceptable planting medium, and you sometimes have to remove it and get down to
dirt or organics below.
As the spring turns into
July, you may start seeing several types of berries. You might see small strawberries hidden on
the ground. Don’t eat berries unless
you’re sure of what they are, since several types of berries are mildly toxic,
and can cause stomach aches or even vomiting.
In late July, you may start running into raspberries on a lot of blocks. Raspberries are quite safe to eat, although
they’re a bit thorny to work through. In
mid-August, you may start seeing a lot of blueberries low to the ground, and
Saskatoons (juneberries) on taller plants.
Both of these are safe to eat.
You may also occasionally see blackberries, huckleberries, and
salmonberries. Pay attention to your
surroundings, because bears are often attracted to areas with large amounts of
berries.
Fireweed is a common
plant, which appears in July. It grows
quite quickly, covering blocks with stems that are three to four feet high,
covered in pinkish or purplish flowers.
The only real drawback to fireweed, aside from it getting to be fairly
thick at times, is that later in the summer the flowers die and turn to a
cottony dander which floats around in the wind and gets into your eyes, nose,
and mouth.
There are several benign
types of plants that don’t really affect planters, but which you’ll see and
learn to recognize, such as cow parsnip, licorice ferns, fiddleheads, and wild ginger. You can google each of them to learn more.
You’ll also eventually
learn to recognize a number of different types of common flowers, such as: dandelions, wild roses, daisies, black-eyed
susans, arnica, thimbleberry, trillium, camas, larkspur, buttercup, clover,
violets, yarrow, skunk cabbage, tiger lily, and devil’s paintbrush.
Salal is a plant that most
first-year planters won’t encounter, but which is important to coastal
planters. Salal has thick, waxy leaves,
and cedar is about the only conifer that thrives in salal patches. You’ve probably seen salal leaves before,
because they’re commonly used around the world in floral arrangements. Salal berries are quite edible, although you
probably won’t see them until the fall.
Labrador tea is an annoying
flower, because it has very tough roots that are hard to plant into.
There are dozens of types
of mushrooms that you might find on the blocks.
Many are edible, such as black morels, but there are a few types that
will make you moderately or severely sick.
If you’re interested in mushrooms, it’s a good idea to buy a guide book,
just because there are so many unique varieties. A great book to check out is “All That Rain
Promises And More,” by David Arora.
Poison oak and poison ivy
are less recognizable. Luckily, they’re
also not common on planting blocks. You
might very occasionally see them along the edges of blocks, in shaded
areas. If you brush up against them, the
chemical toxins on these plants can give you some very bad rashes. Luckily, it’s quite rare for planters to come
into contact with either of these plants.
Giant hogweed is another
plant to avoid, because it is completely covered in a sap that is fairly toxic
and causes significant rashes, blisters, or other longer-term problems. WorkSafe BC has even issued alerts about
giant hogweed. However, giant hogweed
can be easily confused with cow parsnip, which doesn’t have toxic sap.
Don’t eat plants unless
you’re absolutely positive about their identification. Several common plants in BC are quite
poisonous, such as false hellebore.
Animals
Many of the larger animals
were covered in the section about hazards and safety, so we’ll try not to
repeat anything.
You may see both grizzly
bears and black bears on your blocks.
Black bears are far more common.
Each type of bear has some specific identifying characteristics, such as
the shape of their face, or the shape of their back. However, you shouldn’t use their size or the
color of their fur as a reliable means to differentiate between the species. Grizzlies and black bears sometimes react
different to the presence of humans.
It’s important for planters to watch a Bear Aware video to get a better
understanding of the differences between these two species.
Ungulates is a term that
is used to encompass most of Canada’s larger four-legged animals. Some of these animals may look cute, but they
can be dangerous if they become aggressive, especially in the presence of young
animals or during rutting season. Almost
everyone knows what a moose looks like.
There are generally two types of deer in Canada: mule deer, and white-tails. The mule deer has almost no obvious tail, and
usually hops when it runs. The
black-tail deer is a subspecies of mule deer.
The white-tail deer, on the other hand, has a more conventional
four-legged way of running, and when they are nervous, their white tail stands
up like a warning flag. Elk are very
large animals that are close to the size of a moose, and are most frequently
seen near Jasper, or in a few other locations throughout BC. Caribou look similar to elk, but they’re
usually only about half the size, or slightly larger than a mature deer. Caribou, like elk, are not seen as frequently
as moose or deer. Finally, you may run
into feral horses in many parts of BC.
There are three main types
of wild cats in BC. Cougars, also known
as mountain lions, are the largest. The
largest cougars can weigh 200 pounds or more, and could potentially be fairly
dangerous. However, they’re also very
reclusive, and most planters will never see a cougar in their career. Bobcats and lynx are much more common, and
they’re also much smaller and haven’t been noted as being dangerous to
planters. These two cats are also easy
to confuse. Bobcats look fairly similar to a large house cat, and have striped
bands on their tails. Lynx have
crazy-looking faces, with big tufts of fur that you don’t see on household
cats, and they don’t have stripes on their tails. The bobcat is more commonly found in
southeastern BC, whereas the lynx is common in most parts of the province
except for coastal areas.
There are very few smaller
animals that could theoretically pose a danger to planters. You might get sprayed by a skunk, or get
poked by quills if you run into a porcupine, but we rarely see either of these
animals, and I’ve never heard of a planter being harmed by either. Wolverines are another exceptionally fierce
animal, but few planters will ever see a wolverine, and I’ve certainly never
heard of a planter being attacked by one.
Of course, there are also
many benign small animals. You’ll
probably see many rabbits, hares, mice, moles, voles, squirrels, rats, gophers,
beavers, and other small animals during your career. None of them should be immediately dangerous
to planters, although several of these animals can carry various diseases, and
mice are especially dirty little animals.
Birds
A lot of birds nest on the
ground in the blocks that you’ll be planting, so don’t be surprised to
frequently discover small nests with eggs.
Looking above you, you’ll often see various types of larger predatory
birds, including bald eagles, golden eagles, goshawks, falcons, and a dozen
different types of hawks. Sometimes,
you’ll even see owls.
Probably the only birds
that planters need to be wary of are crows and ravens. This is because these birds can be mischievous
and troublesome, and will tear apart garbage boxes and steal lunches from
caches. These birds are incredibly
intelligent. I’ve seen them open zippers
and undo clasps that planters even have problems unfastening, and they’ll often
open up day-bags to pull out food. It’s
sometimes a bit tricky to distinguish between the two species. Ravens are usually larger. If you see them flying overhead, ravens have
four “fingers” of feather at the tip of each wing, whereas crows have five
fingers. However, the most obvious
difference is their voice. American
crows make a higher-pitched sharp “caw” sound, whereas ravens have a deeper,
hoarse croak. Finally, crows have a
fairly smooth fan-shaped tail, while ravens have more of pointed V-shaped tail.
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tree planter training information, visit:
